Originally published in The Jerusalem Post, 10 March 2000. Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Louis Jacobs. London & Portland, Oregon, The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. 267pp. No price stated. A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community ... Continue Reading ➨
‘A Rabbi for All Seasons’ by Jeffrey Cohen
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 17 December 2004. Jewish Preaching—Homilies and Sermons, £16.95, Their Heads in Heaven—Unfamiliar Aspects of Hasidism, £17.95 Louis Jacobs, Vallentine Mitchell It was with a sense of ... Continue Reading ➨
Pesach
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle. On Pesach, it is not only children who are encouraged to ask questions. Where children are not present at the Seder, the adults ask the questions of one another. Even when a man celebrates the Seder ... Continue Reading ➨
The feminine and the divine
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 18 February 2000. A strategy by which Jewish feminists have sought to refute the allegation that Judaism is a purely masculine religion, in which God is always addressed as “He,” never as “She,” has ... Continue Reading ➨
Tetsaveh
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 6 March 1998. In the rites for the consecration of the priests, the blood of the sacrifices is sprinkled on the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the big toe of the right foot. The ... Continue Reading ➨
Va’era
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle. Among the numerous comments on the 10 plagues, none is more startling and provocative than that of the Chasidic master, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, of Kotzk. He is reported to have said that you have to ... Continue Reading ➨
Vayishlach – Angels or Messengers
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 12 December 1997. “And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother.”—Genesis 32: 4. In the Bible, the word malach sometimes means a human messenger—anyone sent to carry out an act on behalf ... Continue Reading ➨
Kindling the Imagination
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 10 December 1971. We asked “the rabbi” to give us his personal interpretation of the meaning of the Festival of Light. The Talmud (Shabbat 21b) asks why we keep Chanucah. Every Jewish equivalent of ... Continue Reading ➨
M. J. Field, ‘Angels and Ministers of Grace’
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle. Fairy tales Angels and Ministers of Grace. By M. J. Field. Longman. £2. The author of this curious book is an ethno-psychiatrist who spent several years in West Africa and whose experiences there ... Continue Reading ➨
Hermann Strack (ed.), ‘The Babylonian Codex of Petrograd’
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle. The Babylonian Codex of Petrograd. Edited with Preface and Critical Annotations by Hermann L. Strack. Prolegomenon by P. Wernberg-Moller, Ktav, 1971. $50.00. This reprint of one of the oldest ... Continue Reading ➨
Sleaze
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 3 November 1994. Informed sources: ‘Sleaze’ The ongoing national debate on alleged “sleaze” in public life has strong echoes in the classical Jewish sources—which highlight the potential conflict ... Continue Reading ➨
Joanna Weinberg (trans. & ed.), ‘The Light of the Eyes’
Originally published in the Jewish Chronicle, 4th January 2002. “The Light of the Eyes” Azariah de Rossi, translated with annotations by Joanna Weinberg, Yale University Press, £48. The Me’or Enayim, (“Light of the Eyes”), by the ... Continue Reading ➨
Eugene Borowitz, ‘Unfinished Rabbi: The Selected Writings of Arnold Jacob Wolf’
Originally published in the Times Literary Supplement, 11 September 1998. Arnold Jacob Wolf UNFINISHED RABBI The selected writings of Arnold Jacob Wolf Edited by Eugene B. Borowitz 288pp. Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee. £27.50. 156663 183 1 This ... Continue Reading ➨
‘Provisional Absolutes’ – A Review by Chaim Potok
Originally published in Commentary Magazine, May 1965, pp. 76-80. Principles of the Jewish Faith. By Louis Jacobs. Basic Books. 467 pp. $9.50. Reviewed by Chaim Potok Rabbi Louis Jacobs is troubled by the “obstacles to belief in some of the ... Continue Reading ➨
Gesher interview with Hannah Rosefield and Emma Bernstein
Rabbi Louis Jacobs very kindly agreed to be interviewed for Gesher by Hannah Rosefield (member of the New London Synagogue) and Emma Bernstein (member of the New North London Synagogue.) Here are the questions they asked him and the answers he ... Continue Reading ➨
Reflections on a Controversy
Originally published in Quest, 1 (September 1965); republished in New North London News (Autumn 2000), pp. 9-11. On the occasion of Rabbi Jacobs’ retirement after 36 years as minister of New London Synagogue, we reproduce with kind acknowledgement ... Continue Reading ➨
‘A Man of Reason’ – NorthWest article upon Jacobs’s retirement
Originally published in NorthWest Magazine, July 2000, pp. 16-17. A Man of Reason On the eve of his retirement from the New London Synagogue, Maggie Currey talks to Rabbi Louis Jacobs about his controversial career. For many in St John’s ... Continue Reading ➨
Soren Kierkegaard, ‘The Last Year – Journals’
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle, 24 September 1965. RELIGIOUS PARADOX By LOUIS JACOBS The Last Years—Journals, 1853-55. By Soren Kierkegaard. Edited and translated by Ronald Gregor Smith. Collins. 35s. Kierkegaard’s genius cannot ... Continue Reading ➨
Is Theology Good for the Jews? – Review by Solomon Goldman
Originally published in The Jewish Chronicle. FAITH. By Rabbi Louis Jacobs. Vallentine, Mitchell. 42s. Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav (1772-1811), great-grandson of the founder of Chasidism, answered the question, “Is theology good for the Jews?” ... Continue Reading ➨
Review by Bruce Findlow in ‘The Inquirer’
Originally published in The Inquirer (18 May 1968). Rabbi Jacobs' Defence of Theism A defence of theism addressed to doubting Jewish readers? A Jewish defence of theism addressed to Christians? Rabbi Louis Jacobs’ new book Faith (Vallentine, ... Continue Reading ➨